Hanging around…

So I arrive at the diner after my totally hip escape from Las Vegas and the Elvi, and I still look like Shaggy and Velma’s lost kid, but whatever. I get a table in a quiet corner, at my request. There’s already a cup of hot coffee there, but I’m not in the mood for coffee. That is fortunate, because, no sooner do I reach for the menu, when the coffee, mug, and all vanishes. Poof! I go back to looking at the menu and decide on some sweet tea and a large plate of plain waffles with maple syrup. I’ve only just put the menu down, when I notice the mug is back on the table and empty. It occurs to me, that, either I’ve found Claude or I’m sharing my table with a ghost. I’m OK with either, though, truth be told, I’d rather hang with Claude. I don’t say anything aloud to my unseen guest, because, I figure, if it is Claude, the last thing he needs is someone else cramping his style.

After my food arrives, I glance around, but don’t see anyone I’ve read or heard about online, as yet. I figure I’ll wait until something happens or the place closes. At least there’s no “Elvi” here, which is a plus. I eat about half my waffles, which are awesome, then pull out my lap top to go online. When I look back at the plate, the other half of my waffles are gone. It doesn’t bug me, as I was done anyway. While I ponder this I think back to when I first realized I was special.

I was about 5, maybe 7, when I started having the strangest dreams. I didn’t have many friends, at least no one I felt I could trust enough to talk to. More often than not, I’d talk to my stuffed animals. They were great listeners, but lousy for advice. I kept having this recurring dream about finding a rope in the garage to make a rope swing with. I decided to look for it and found it right where it was in my dream. The rope was about 50ft long. I coiled it up and took it with me as I climbed this close knit group of trees in my front yard. I climbed as high as I could and tied the rope tightly. I got back down lower and tied a loop at the bottom for a footrest and a stick about 3 1/2 to 4 feet up from that for a hand grip. I then tested my creation. The stick broke, my foot fell through the loop, which then tightened around my ankle. So there I was, hanging upside down, from a tree. It wasn’t too bad. It would have been more fun if the rope hadn’t been so tight around my ankle. I swung back and forth and started to see things. Then I blacked out. When I came to, I was lying on the ground. My shoe and sock had come off and the rope loop with them. I grabbed my footwear and put it back on. Two hours later, my mom took me shopping at a mall, and I found one store was selling this old deck of Tarot cards, cheaply. I used my allowance money to get them. What really got my attention was the “example” card the seller had left out; it was a person hanging upside down from a tree by his ankle…